Another Week in the Life of the Bradshaws

So, this last week was a busy one for us. Michael was on call last weekend, and it’s been nice this week that he hasn’t had to be attached to his pager. Monday was Columbus Day, so the boys didn’t have school. We enjoyed a nice long walk/bike ride – Isaac helped me push Courtland’s stroller, Eli and Camden rode their bikes, and Kolby walked Brax (he’s been practicing lately and is quite proud of himself – although I’m still pretty careful when we walk past another dog, because Brax or the other dog might try to run up to each other and pull the leash out of Kolby’s hand, Kolby has done well and has been excited about this new responsibility). Then that night Michael had a work meeting, so he got home after the kids were in bed.
The next night I had my shift at the family history center. And on Wednesday morning we went over to the Forsgren’s house for playgroup and the boys rode bikes and played on the playground near their house before we had to get back for Eli’s bus. That night I had activity days, and the other teacher wasn’t able to come, so it was just me and 7 girls (I’m just glad that not all the girls happened to show up, since 10 pre-teen girls is a little much for one adult). The lesson went well, but when I tried to have the girls work on memorizing one of the Articles of Faith afterwards it was pretty hard to keep some of them interested. But several of them passed off the one we were working on, so that’s good.

On Thursday morning we went to the library. Eli, Camden, and Isaac enjoyed their story time while I took Courtland to the baby playtime. Courtland seems to be doing better each time at sharing with the other kids, so this is probably a good opportunity for him to play with other kids his age and younger (since most of his time is spent with big brothers and their friends). After Michael got home that evening, I went for Ladies’ Night Out. I didn’t have very many people RSVP, and the one person I knew was coming for sure cancelled that afternoon. But I couldn’t cancel it last minute, because I didn’t want anyone to show up at the restaurant and have no one there. So I decided to go and wait to see if anyone came, and I’m glad I did because Rachael Case came and we had lots of fun talking together while we ate our paninis.

On Friday I got the older boys off to school and the younger boys down for naps, then I packed a little bag in preparation for the overnight women’s conference our church had up at a church campground on Seneca Lake. I got the house all cleaned up – most people were leaving for the women’s conference around 4:00 that afternoon, and a friend of mine had heard that I wasn’t going to be able to leave until later in the evening after Michael got home to be with the kids, and so her husband (who works from home) very kindly offered to come stay with the boys in the afternoon until Michael got home so I could ride out there with everyone. So, I was feeling pretty relaxed, with everything ready to go and a little bit of spare time before the boys woke up from their naps. Then I got a phone call from the school saying that Eli had diarrhea and it went down his leg to his shoe, he was in all new clothes, and I needed to pick him up. (Luckily, Eli seemed totally fine otherwise, and hasn’t been sick at all since then). At that point I didn’t have much time to spare before my friend’s husband was supposed to show up, but I woke up all the boys from naps and headed over to the school in the rain. I got all the boys into the school, to be told that Eli had just gone to get his backpack from his class, and that he had accidentally gotten on the bus (school was just getting out). So the school nurse started running through the parking lot in the rain from bus to bus until she found the right one and brought Kolby and Eli back to me. I got him signed out, then we made a super quick stop at Target for baby wipes (I thought we had a couple more packages of wipes, but had realized that we were totally out right before we left, and Courtland had a messy diaper). Then we rushed home, and while I was upstairs getting Eli into the bath and trying to find him clothes when our friend showed up to watch the boys. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off for a little while longer to get diapers changed and get the few last minute things ready, then Melissa came and picked me up and we headed to the retreat.

The conference was fun. Fortunately, most of the meetings were held in a large, indoor dining hall, and the cabins were comfortable and warm – because it was very rainy and quite cold outside while we were there. It was really nice to enjoy that time with friends, and to have meals provided – it’s nice to have a break from cooking and cleaning up after eating once in a while. The group in our cabin was fun – 5 of us from our ward at church, and the rest from other congregations in the area – and we stayed up until 1am playing games. It ended up that most of the people in our cabin were related – a mom with 3 of her daughters and 3 of her daughters-in-law. The daughters were somewhere around my age, and several of them had families with 3, 4, or 5 kids each, which was fun. I told them the next day that I just loved their family, and I hoped that someday I’d have 5 daughters-in-law that were all so fun and got along so well.

On Saturday we had the classes. There were several choices of classes, and when I signed up none of the topics really jumped out at me, but they ended up being a lot better than I expected. I went to one class about marriage and one about studying the scriptures. Afterwards Melissa and I rode home together again, and I’m afraid I wasn’t very good company – I was dozing off for part of the ride, I was so tired. When I got home, Michael went to catch the remainder of a football game party (even though BYU lost, as was expected, he had fun going and watching with some friends). While Michael was gone I ended up giving Kolby, Eli, Camden, and Isaac all haircuts – took me almost 2 hours, but I got it done and got them fed dinner right before Michael got home (and the boys all look so handsome!) Then that night we called some of our Milwaukee friends but we didn’t hear back from them (we found out later they’re out of town, so we’ll have to try again sometime). So we each ended up doing some reading before bed.

On Sunday morning Michael and the boys made blueberry-raspberry pancakes (they turned out thin – kind of like crepes, so I quite liked them). Then I remembered that it was the first day of a new genealogy class I am teaching about making a Book of Remembrance. I had prepared my lesson a week or two before, so that was all ready, but I wanted to have a sample book at least partially completed to show to the class. I had one, but I wanted to make a few changes to it. I wished I had thought of it the night before, when I would have had plenty of time to get it ready, but instead we finished up breakfast, got the boys bathed and dressed, and got dressed for church, then I rushed around and got an extra binder, some page protectors, and printed some things off the computer, and got it all together. We thought we might be late for church, but we got there just in time for me to get the copies I needed for my class made before the meeting started. In Sacrament meeting the bishopric was released and a new one was called. Members of both the outgoing and incoming bishoprics gave some very good talks. Then during the second hour I had my class, and it went quite well. Michael and I took a similar class at church when we lived in Milwaukee, and it’s the only genealogy class I’ve ever had at church where you are guaranteed to leave after several weeks of classes and have something completed to show for your time and work (unless you just sit there and refuse to participate at all, I suppose). But there are 4 people in the class so far (I usually get a few others to sign up after the classes start), and it was very relaxed. I think it will be a really nice class. Plus, I was originally planning on a 4 week class, and the family history director told me it would be 8 weeks long instead, so that gives us ample time to actually do some writing during class time and really get some good work done for those who come each week. So, that was nice. And the relief society meeting was nice too – it was about baptism, and there were several good comments from people in the class, especially from those who were baptized when they were adults.

After church we had some cream cheese crockpot chicken that Michael made, which turned out very nice. And after dinner Michael played the piano while I made cookies with the boys. Michael and I talked this weekend, and we decided that the one thing we could change that would have the biggest positive effect on our family right now is if he and I could be calmer with the boys, so we made a commitment to work hard on that, and yesterday went quite well. Today has gone pretty well too, so I think this will be a good change for us.

Well, that’s our week. We have another busy one coming up, but at least Michael has a few reading days coming up the next couple of weeks (I think they are all coming at once because they are making up for him not having any extra study time while he was on call the last five weeks). This afternoon we’re planning on going to the pumpkin patch with the boys for our family night, as soon as Kolby and Eli get home, which should be any minute now.